The Last Shifter (a Loki romance)

Chapter 35

After an entire morning of being lazy, we decided to actually go to the gardens and give our dragons some much-needed attention.

"They've had enough time to get used to their bodies, now it's time to teach them how to use them."

"I thought you said they wouldn't be able to fly for a number of months."

"That doesn't mean we can't start teaching them the basics now.  And flying isn't everything, you know.  Say they had an injured wing?  What would they do then?"

"Run.  They know how to do that already."

"And if running wasn't an option?"

"What are you trying to get at here?"

"Ground assault.  We can teach them to take orders, give them hand signals that correspond to commands.  It's best that they learn this at a young age."

"Why?"

"Because some day they will grow old enough to question their loyalty to us.  Someone will tempt them with a better life that they don't intend to give them."

"How likely is that?  That they will take up the offer?"

"It depends on how old they are.  At this age, they won't even understand the offer, but when they're teenagers...."

"But that is over a decade from now."

"Not in dragon years.  Dragons mature quickly, my guess is that they will be fully mature in about two years."

"So about the time we can actually ride them."

"No, depending on how fast they grow we may be able to do that before or we may have to wait a bit longer."

"And when do they get their breath weapons?"

"They don't 'get' them, they learn how to use them."

"But how?"

"So many questions.  They observe other dragons and copy them."

"But how will they do that?  There are no other dragons."

"Well, in this case–" I lost my train of thought as we rounded the last corner.  The dragons were on one side of the clearing, cowering behind the fountain.  On the other side stood Kurt, grazing in the grass without a care in the world and completely unaware of the three terrified younglings not far away.  Without thinking, I bolted from Loki's side and raced to him.  The dragons squealed when they saw me but I paid them no heed.  Kurt looked up and became rather confused and somewhat scared at my fast approach, as far as he was concerned, I had no reason to be so happy.  I remembered myself at the last moment, slowing to a slightly faster than normal walk and finishing the journey to him.  Once I reached him, I threw my arms around his neck and sobbed into his mane.  I finally had him back.  The repercussions of Odin's rash actions had finally passed.

Loki wisely decided to let me have this moment alone with my horse and went over to the dragons instead.  Once my tears subsided, I pulled away and gave Kurt a kiss on the soft part of his muzzle between his nose and mouth.

"Yuck!  I am not kissing you again until you wash your lips!" Loki shouted from the other side of the clearing.  I rolled my eyes.

"Do I need to pull a Sleipnir card on you?"

"That's below the belt!"

"Oh well.  What were we talking about before?"

"How they were going to learn by observing another dragon."